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In a small lab on the second floor of the Science Center, two identical-looking vials of specimens sit side by side, waiting to be processed. But although the samples may appear to be the same, they were collected from almost opposite sides of the Earth: Green Lake in Fayetteville, N.Y., and Antarctica’s Hughes Bay. Working under Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick, Libby Pendery ’10 and Agne Jakubauskaite ’13 are using similar methods of analysis on samples from two very different locations to  detect and classify the species of microbes that are present at different depths.

Staring at the computer screen in front of him, Max Williams ’12 rotates a complex MRI image. He opens up the cross sections, targeting the colored area and moving “slices” of the image to better see the specific piece he wants. What is all this technology used to analyze? A chicken embryo’s face, of course! Williams is spending the summer at the Birth Defects Research Lab at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle working to set new parameters for the embryonic development of chickens.

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Monica Inzer was the focus of a feature article in the spring issue of Inside, the newsletter of the Posse Foundation. “Hamilton Dean Promotes Diversity and Access” praised the College’s need-blind policy, expanded partnership with the Posse program and initiation of the First in the Family project and noted Inzer’s involvement in each.

When it comes to the mind and the body, we live immersed in two opposing viewpoints. While many of us believe in the power of science and the firing neurons of the brain that account for many of our actions, we continue attributing our sensations and thoughts to a separate concept of the “mind,” an abstract entity only loosely connected to the physical body. Working with John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner and through an Emerson grant, Himeka Hagiwara ’11 is exploring the mind-body dichotomy and the conflicting perspectives that are so prominent in our culture.

To the average person, chaos is a concept that lacks any form of organization or order. In everyday language, chaos can mean disaster, tumult or lawlessness. But to a physicist, chaos is just another form of complex behavior. This summer, Leonard Teng ’12 is working to perfect an apparatus developed by Litchfield Professor of Physics Peter Millet and Director of Laboratories/Head Technician Jim Schreve that allows the user to better calculate and demonstrate the properties of chaotic motion.

Couper Librarian Randall Ericson has compiled a bibliography of the works of prominent 20th century author and Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Spanning the years 1962-75, it includes translations of Solzhenitsyn’s work into all languages, as well as miscellaneous non-literary works such as letters and Solzhenitsyn’s statements to the Soviet Writers’ Union. One of the Solzhenitsyn’s most recognized and celebrated publications, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was first published in 1962.

Fever, coughing, vomiting, diarrhea: all of these are symptoms of parasite infestation. Nematodes are one of the most common types of human, animal and plant parasites. Not all nematodes are parasitic and not all parasites are nematodes, but these microscopic creatures are part of one of the most diverse phyla on the planet. Suman Sarker ’11, Barsha Baral ’13 and Shahin Islam ’12 working under Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang and Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe, are looking at genetics to more thoroughly categorize nematodes.

Deep in the bowels of the Science Center, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Y. Jones labored away at the project that has become her White Whale: unlocking the secrets of the clathrate hydrates (molecules that form cage-like structures around various guest molecules). But as she ran the spectroscopy on the clathrates, she found the resulting spectra to be extremely complex—too complex to be interpreted. In order to facilitate Jones’ research, Kate Otley ’12, working under Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian Rosenstein, is spending her summer replacing some of the troublesome hydrogen atoms with its isotope, deuterium.

De Bao Xu, professor of Chinese, organized the 6th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century (TCLT6) co-sponsored by Hamilton College and the Ohio State University and held at the Ohio State University June 12-14.

Andrew Beyler and Kate Arpino, both members of the class of 2010 and chemical physics majors, presented their senior thesis research at the 17th International Conference on Dynamic Processes in Excited States of Solids. It took place at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago from June 20-25 and had 130 attendees.